Monday, May 09, 2005

What's in the Beef you eat - An interview with Howard Lyman

More reasons why Americans, particularly African Americans are sick. This is a good case as to why people need to buy organic foods. If more people purchased organic foods, the increase in demand would drive the prices downward. You either pay higher prices now while you can afford it to maintain your health, or you will pay higher health care costs later at a time when you can least afford it (in your golden years) as you will certainly be sick eating non-organic meats.

1. PesticidesNearly all the meat in America is contaminated with toxic chemicals applied directly to livestock and to animal feed.

2. DioxinDioxin, a by-product of the modern industrial age, actually consists of a family of 75 toxic chemicals. Considered to be among the most toxic of substances known to man, it has been referred to as the Darth Vader of chemicals by one researcher.

3. FatModern beef production uses castrated steers penned in tightly packed feedlots, fed a diet of sorghum (high-sugar waste from sugar mills) and grain to quickly add fat before slaughter. The muscles of these animals produce stearic acid fat, which promotes elevated cholesterol and especially LDL in those who eat it.

4. AntibioticsMeat animals are routinely treated with antibiotics to control sickness and disease, and to make the animals grow faster. Penicillin, tetracycline, drug-resistant bacteria and countless other substances are routinely found in America's meat supply. Livestock consumes 50% of all the antibiotics used in the US, leading to new virulent strains of bacteria that are resistant to all modern antibiotics.

5. Reproductive HormonesSince 1995 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed the use of implanted hormonal agents in beef cattle. These include the female hormones estradiol and progesterone; norgestomet, a synthetic progestin; the male hormone testosterone; and the synthetic anabolic steroids, zeranol and trenbolone.

Estradiol, the hormone most commonly used to "fatten" cattle, is a potent cancer-causing estrogen.6. Growth HormonesPromoted by Monsanto, and sold as Posilic, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, (rBGH), increased milk production in dairy herds nearly 20%.

7. To counteract the increased physical demandon the animals from excessive milk productionThe agricultural industry feeds the dairy cows a high protein diet of ground up dead cows including sick and diseased animals.